Kings Fall to Flames in Intense Shootout Battle
CALGARY, Canada — Yegor Sharangovich netted the decisive goal in the fourth round of a shootout, leading the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 victory over the Kings on Tuesday night.
The Flames celebrated their fourth consecutive win, marking their first streak of this length this season. Olli Maatta and Zayne Parekh contributed to the scoreboard with their first goals of the season during regulation. In goal, Dustin Wolf successfully defended 23 shots.
For the Kings, Quinton Byfield scored both goals, while goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves. Despite earning points in seven of their last nine games, the Kings have only secured three victories during that stretch and are currently on a four-game losing streak.
With this defeat, Los Angeles now trails the Nashville Predators by three points in the race for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Calgary equalized at 1-1 in the second period at 14:50, thanks to a setup from Ryan Strome and Victor Olofsson that allowed Maatta to find the net. All three players were added to the Flames’ roster at the trade deadline, with Olofsson coming in a deal for Nazem Kadri, Maatta joining from Utah in the MacKenzie Weegar trade, and Strome acquired from Anaheim for a seventh-round pick to fill Kadri’s position at center.
Maatta has since tallied one goal and five assists in ten games with Calgary, a sharp contrast to his previous statistics with the Mammoth, where he recorded just one assist over 22 games.
Byfield reclaimed the lead for the Kings just 17 seconds into the third period, but Parekh leveled the score again with a power-play goal at 13:02.
In the shootout, after Morgan Frost and Artemi Panarin exchanged goals in the first three rounds, Sharangovich’s eventual winning shot came after a misplayed puck slipped through Kuemper’s pads, sealing the Flames’ victory.
